Showing results by narrator "Natasha Soudek" in All Categories

Prudence Landon has always done exactly as she should. She's obeyed her parents' every word, lived by society's every dictate, and even agreed to marry a man more than twice her age simply because it was expected of her. In the fortnight before her wedding, she decides it's high time to bend a few rules before life as she knows it is over. Viscount Ashby leads a charmed life. Betrothed since the age of seven, he is perfectly content to allow his off-the-market status to keep the marriage-minded mamas at bay.

Fifteen years ago, Hector Lewis’ wife and young daughter vanished without a trace. People have long thought he was responsible, but the man he knows is behind their disappearance still walks free. As a police officer, he is sworn to uphold the law. But he has seen how little justice there is in the world. And when a newcomer’s arrival sparks a harrowing series of crimes, Hector finds himself in a race to catch a man he is convinced is a killer.

In a small Minnesota mining town, young Krissa is sheltered from her violent father by Danny, the brother she idolizes. Danny, a budding musician, is determined to escape with his sister in tow. When the pair finally succeed, they meet Quinn, a privileged and wealthy college student. Drawn together by a passion for music, Danny and Quinn set up a successful pop group. As their stars begin to rise, Danny falls in love with fame, and Quinn and Krissa fall in love with each other.

The seductive story of a dangerous love triangle, inspired by the infamous Nabokov marriage, with a spellbinding psychological thriller at its core. In the 1920s, Zoya Andropova, a young refugee from the Soviet Union, finds herself in the alien landscape of an elite all-girls New Jersey boarding school. Having lost her family, her home, and her sense of purpose, Zoya struggles to belong, a task made more difficult by the malice her peers heap on scholarship students and her new country's paranoia about Russian spies.

If there's one thing I've learned since last semester, you never know what the Three Societies are going to do next. First, they invite you into their midst and call it Seer Training. Yeah, right. Like they have any idea what to do with the likes of me. Then they say, "Go fend for yourself." I don't think they're going to like the way I fend for myself. Because I'm tired of bowing to the whims of the Guardians, Nexis . . . or anybody else for that matter. I'm the Seer. I'm the one with super-cool angel powers. And I'm the one who pays the price when I use them.

Head writer for daytime's only historical romantic soap opera, small-town girl Jenny Cotton is on top of the world. But she can't seem to write herself out of a difficult relationship until actor Alec Cameron walks onto the set. Alec survived a big-budget TV flop with the same "good guy" courage that got him out of a failed marriage. But no matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to hide his wounds from writer Jenny.

Apprentice Flick remembers everything, except the first five years of her life. And for as long as she can remember, Flick has wanted to enter the Elite Academy - home to the best, brightest, and most loyal members of the Love Collective government. Flick's uncanny memory might get her there, too...even if it is the very thing that marks her as a freak. But frightening hallucinations start intruding into her days and threaten to bring down all she has worked so hard to accomplish.

Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it. Here, Bornstein bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival in an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a much-needed unconventional approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, but alive.

It is 1940. For the past decade, Walter Benjamin - the German-Jewish critic and philosopher - has been writing his masterpiece in a library in Paris, a city he loves. Now Nazi tanks have overrun the suburbs, and Benjamin is forced to flee. With a battered briefcase that contains his precious manuscript of a thousand handwritten pages, he sets off for the border and is led by chance to a young anti-Nazi who is taking Jews and other refugees over the Pyrenees into Spain, where they may (with luck) make their way to freedom in Portugal or South America.

Award-winning journalist Caitlin Bergman's mother is dead - at least that's what she’s told everyone for the past 40 years. It’s easier to lie than to explain how Maya abandoned her only daughter before dropping off the map forever. But when a rural sheriff invites Caitlin to the woods of coastal Oregon to identify her mother's remains, Caitlin drops everything to face the woman she's spent a lifetime hating. Unfortunately, the body - abandoned on the land of a reclusive cult, the Daughters of God - was left faceless.

Three long years have passed since Anna, First of Tomas, survived the purge in Malijad after being forced to use her scribe sigils to create an army of immortals. Safely ensconced in the shelter of the Nest, a sanctuary woven by one of her young allies, Anna spends her days tutoring the gifted yet traumatized scribe, Ramyi, and coming to terms with her growing attachment to an expatriate soldier in her company. Away from her refuge, war drums continue to beat. Thwarted in her efforts to locate the elusive tracker and bring him to justice, Anna turns to the state of Nahora for help.

As the niece of an earl, Elizabeth Abbington knows all about the stifling expectations and responsibilities placed upon peers of the realm. She has no desire to marry into that kind of life. Instead she dreams of traveling abroad, where she can put her talent for languages to good use. When her dear friend invites her on a trip to Spain, Libby jumps at the chance to begin her adventure.

After destroying the Crescent Stone, Madeline returns home, bringing Shula and Yenil with her. As her health continues to deteriorate, Madeline feels the Sunlit Lands calling her back. Meanwhile, Jason, Darius, and the rest of the inhabitants of the Sunlit Lands fight for survival and freedom. The magic that fuels the land is failing, threatening to destroy them all. Will Madeline’s return save the land and its people?

1904, Chudniv, Ukraine. Playing hide-and-seek in bucolic fields of sunflowers, young Jakob never imagines the horrific secrets he will carry as he and his brother escape through genocide-ridden Eastern Europe. 1994, South Haven, Michigan. At age 94, time is running out for any hope that Jakob can be free from his burden of guilt. When Jakob’s wife dies, he and his daughter, Nel, are forced to face the realities of his worsening dementia. The God they have both been running from shows that he redeems not only broken years, but also the future.

Midnight, June 13, 1942: Peter Burger stands on a foggy beach, ears primed as a submarine hull scrapes the sandy sea bottom. He has endured seventeen months in a Gestapo prison and seventeen days on a Nazi U-boat only to have landed on American shores with six boxes of explosives and no escape. After slipping into New York City, Peter finds himself at a massive military parade where he meets Grete Baum, a German-Jewish refugee grappling with loneliness and loss. Grete is drawn to Peter’s brooding vulnerability, and the pair instantly bond.

Being a werewolf's mate sucks, but Bera doesn't have a choice - until a big, brutish, and thoroughly pissed-off Viking werebear crashes into her cave and rescues her. He may be hot and their chemistry off-the-charts good, but she's done with domination games and alpha males. Colden isn't a nice guy - and he likes it that way. His rules are simple. Hit hard, fight mean, and defend what's his. But when the Viking werebear rescues a sexy little werewolf and her pack names Colden as her new mate, the rules change.

A struggling single mother. Rianna Cutter strips to survive. It's the best paying gig for a young woman with little education and puts a roof over her child's head and food on the table. Working toward a better life for her son, she has no time or energy for love. A tough criminal businessman. Jonah Wyatt is ready to make a big change, moving away from his successful pot growing business into a legitimate enterprise. He's all business all the time and has no interest in finding love he doubts even exists.

Apprentice Flick thought the Elite Academy was the answer to all her problems. But the revelation of her past turned everything upside down. Now, she is caught between two worlds set on a collision course. Will she embrace the chaotic memories that flood her every waking moment? Or will she run to the security of her Elite training?

Three years have passed since the devastation of Golyna. Anna, once the maker of immortals, continues to fight the evil she unwillingly created through her rune-carving magic. Secreted away in an isolated mountain monastery, she works as a teacher to young scribes, guiding them toward runes that foster peace rather than endless war. So when the tracker who murdered her brother comes to Anna’s redoubt, begging for his eternal runes to be undone, Anna agrees to grant his wish on one condition - that he aid her in rooting out the remnants of Volna, a genocidal regime....

In the 1990s, Megan Margulies' Upper West Side neighborhood was marked by addicts shooting up in subway stations, frequent burglaries, and the "Wild Man of 96th Street", who set fires under cars and heaved rocks through stained glass church windows. The world inside her parents' tiny one-bedroom apartment was hardly a respite, with a family of five - including some loud personalities - eventually occupying the 550-square-foot space.